If you come here often you might remember a post I made last year about Passenger. While I was just wandering in Montreal to visit this new city I just moved into, I saw an impromptu concert of Passenger in a small park downtown. Well yesterday I was listening to his new album while reading some papers and at one point one song really caught my hears. Somehow I knew the lyrics. So I thought it was a cover or a new version of an old song. Then I remembered that he finished his concert by this exact song, it was the a song in progress at the time yet those lyrics went straight into my memory. I can’t really explain why. This is not great literature, this is pretty simple point. Go out and enjoy your life. It’s just the way he sings it…

I didn’t even knew Lana Del Rey released a new song, I was never a fan of her style. But I’m a big fan of James Vincent McMorrow so when this “new song” came up in my feed I was really excited. Just for the comparaison I listened to the original and was really disappointed. I know you usually fell in love with the first version you listen but I still tried to understand why I needed to push replay on the JVM version and not the LDR one.

First the voice, it’s a fact that Lana doesn’t have a great voice, it’s ok cause it’s going well with her style of music, but then when James Vincent start to sing with his amazing falsetto voice. You can feel the emotions in his voice while Lana is more just “telling” a story. I don’t feel the love story in her version, no energy. She is also laking of rhythm, just listen to the “you got the music, you got the music in you..”, her rhythm is forced.

The music in the original version is pretty cheesy too, with those poor drum fills, and the sounds of the hi-hat in the chorus is really really bad, why some much distortion, it hurts. The JMV version is live in a radio station and with just 3 keyboards and a drum pad they managed to make something a lot cleaner than the original version.

Since it’s a cover, I don’t know if JMV really connect to this song or just did it to please the radio station, but I found more passion in his version than the original, and in the end it makes something beautiful.

Sometimes you want to say things to someone you love but just can’t find the words, and then you hear a song with beautiful lyrics.

Enjoy,

MP3s are for sampling purposes. If you enjoy the music, go and support these artists, buy their CDs, go to their concerts, share the links with your friends and DANCE on their songs.
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